ShortHand: St Patrick

The green-dyed, beshamrocked global circus of drunken debauchery that St Patrick’s Day is today has come a long, long way from its roots as a simple Catholic feast day.

And even the legend of the man behind the green curtain has been wildly inflated. He wasn’t Irish. He probably never even saw a snake. He wasn’t a saint. And his name wasn’t Patrick. So what is the truth behind the legend?

And while we’re at it, how did his saint’s day grow to such epic, messy proportions?

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Sources:

https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/who-was-saint-patrick

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/insanely-violent-history-st-patricks-day/

https://archive.org/details/tripartitepatrick00stokuoft/page/41/mode/2up

https://www.yourirish.com/folklore/legend-of-leprechauns

https://historycooperative.org/leprechaun/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25513501

https://billpetro.medium.com/history-of-reek-sunday-the-legend-of-st-patrick-driving-the-snakes-from-ireland-a3398bc15f7c

https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1972553_1972551_1972451,00.html

https://www.rct.uk/collection/1098852/the-tripartite-life-of-st-patrick-with-other-documents-relating-to-that-saint-v-2

https://irishedition.com/2017/08/the-pre-christian-religion-of-ancient-ireland/

https://study.com/academy/lesson/celtic-paganism-history-deities-facts-ancient-religion.html#:~:text=Celts%20practiced%20ancient%20Celtic%20paganism,as%20the%20Celtic%20Iron%20Age.

https://www.yourirish.com/history/ancient/high-kings-of-ireland

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25513501

https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/who-was-saint-patrick

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Patrick

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/17/st-patrick-sucking-nipples-sailors-homosexuality/

https://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#

https://ucdculturalheritagecollections.com/2021/03/18/st-patrick-a-legend-in-the-landscape/

https://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#

https://irishedition.com/2017/08/the-pre-christian-religion-of-ancient-ireland/

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Episode 339 - Sherri Papini: The Woman Who Fooled the World